Zigen has been focusing on female development since its
establishment. In the past 30 years of rural practice and observation, rural
women, especially those in poverty-stricken areas, are taking on more and more
social roles and agricultural labor. Married women have occupied most of the
rural labor, and have undertaken agricultural production activities such as
land ploughing, sowing, fertilizing, watering, spraying pesticides, harvesting,
etc. Some scholars have summarized this trend as “the feminization of
agricultural labor”. “With the development of industrialization and
urbanization, the rural male labor force has transitioned to non-agricultural jobs, and the
feminization of agricultural main labor has become increasingly prominent,
showing that women have become the main population in rural communities” (Yan
Honghong etc., 2017). According to the statistic of the second national
agricultural report in 2006, among the agricultural employees, the proportion
of male labor decreased to 46.8%, and the proportion of female labor was 53.2%.
The “feminization” of agricultural labor has become a mainstream. Before
writing this article, I specifically looked for photos of women photographed by
Zigen in various places. Basically, such trends and status quo have been
confirmed in the photos.

Even under
such a trend, women do not fully own the lands, production tools and production
materials. Major production decisions are still made by those “absent” males. Some people believe that
this is an illusion which female labor merely exceed the male laboring terms of
statistical numbers instead of the actual “feminization of agricultural labor
force”. Nevertheless, I agree to the saying of the feminization of the
agricultural labor force.

Brief
Analysis of the Feminization of Agricultural Labor

Dating back
to the past, the social status of men and women in agricultural labor has gone
through the period that men plowed and women wove in a traditional agricultural
society, and to the period in which men and women both plowed in the big
communal society, and then to the contemporary status quo in which male labor
force has become a floating population and women occupy most of the
agricultural labor force. Some also called this family cooperation mode
“men working and female plowing.” Even though the labor input of pure
physical strength has decreased with upgrading of the agricultural techniques
over these years, poverty-stricken areas still have their own limitations from
climate, topography, soil, cultivated area, economic reasons, etc. Lacking the
production tools whose purpose is modernization and liberating physical
strength leads to less significant changes in physical input of rural labor.

黎光村妇女小组何耀英的母亲和女儿一家三代人参与混农林种植 Three generations participating in agroforestry planting- Ms. He Yaoying’s mother and daughter, women’s group of Liguang Village

There are
many reasons for the feminization of the agricultural labor force analyzed from
different perspectives. From the perspective of demography, this is because
male labor outflow is greater than the female labor force, which demonstrates a
phenomenon or a result rather than a real reason. There are also many reasons
for the transition in the gender differences on rural labor. He Jun, Li Qing,
and Zhang Yichi believe that it’s due to family division (2010) while Yang Xiaoyan believes
that it is caused by gender discrimination (2008). Some scholars believed that
it’s caused by the low cultural quality of the female labor force. Those who
believe that “lands in China are less, the population is high, the labor
productivity of small-scale agriculture is low, and the income of agricultural
workers is far lower than that of the industrial and commercial workers” mainly
think that it’s due to productivity and economic forces, resulting in rural
labor, especially male labor, migrating from the countryside to the city and
jobs shifting from agricultural to non-agricultural ones. Besides, the deep
reasons for the structural and institutional nature of the feminization of the
agricultural labor force are worthy of further exploration.

Moreover,
under the trend of feminization of agricultural labor, women participate in agricultural
production while traditional social roles of women never changed but stubbornly
accompanied the shift. Women still have to do laundry, cook, do housework,
prepare all daily needs, take care of parents, educate children and build
village infrastructure, all of which fall on the shoulders of women. Regardless
of whether the women are young or old, they are limited with those sayings that
“if your cooking skill is not good enough, are you still a woman?”, “If
you can’t take good care of children/the elderly/homes, are you still a
woman?”, “If you can’t do laundry well, are you still a woman?”, “If
you don’t know how to plough, are you still a woman?”, “Don’t dress
yourself with such an exposing clothes”……etc.
This kind of value judgment about women and “good” women make rural women
barely able to bear the pressure.

The bodily
pressure can be observed and spoken about, but mental pressure is difficult to
observe and speak about. The male labor force flows outwards and goes out to
work. The couples have less chance to reunite and cannot give enough support to
each other. The relationship between husband and wife is tense and the family
structure is unbalanced. In some areas, rural women even commit suicide by
drinking pesticides. In poor rural areas, due to inconvenient transportation,
inadequate water supply, poor medical conditions, and the influence of some
unhealthy customs, many women don’t have good health conditions, and in some
places there are still early marriages and early pregnancies.

“Women
have little gynaecological health knowledge and awareness. Their health
knowledge often comes from the elders. In addition to the traditional concepts,
rural women are often ashamed to be sick and cannot correctly educate their
children about adolescence and gender. Most families do not have bathing
facilities. Many women do not have the habit of brushing their teeth and drink
water directly from uncovered wells or have unheated and unsterilized water.
The sanitary conditions of their kitchens are extremely terrible. Women do not
know enough about gynecological diseases, and some of them even regard
gynecological diseases as back pains or stomach aches. Even though women know
that they are sick, they will think of the difficult home economics and delay
to see a doctor, which results in worsening illness.” (Zhang Yunfei, 2017)

Rural
Women Receive
Insufficient Support

In
poverty-stricken areas, many burdens of responsibility fall onto women, which
makes them have less leisure time to relieve stress. Women take enormous
responsibilities for society and family, but their support in marriage, family,
child education, re-education, employment guidance, land systems, political
participation, legal protection, medical services, reproductive health are not
sufficient. Under the trend of feminization of agricultural labor, women should
have played a greater role in improving agricultural productivity and
protecting agricultural sustainable development. However, in the “Social
Development-Development of Health Care” section, the “China’s Early 21st
Century Action Plan for Sustainable Development” jointly drafted by many
ministries and commissions in 2003, only one line mentions “to strengthen the
prevention and healthcare work for women and children”. The 2015 National
Agricultural Sustainable Development Plan (2015-2030) policy guidance document
doesn’t mention a word regarding the role of women.

Rural
Women Should
Be Given
Deserved Opportunities And Status In Social Development

The
development of rural women has always been closely related to the “three rural
issues”. In comparison with men, women are less likely to have equal
opportunities in development and are more likely to be in a weaker position. In
2011, the “China Women’s Development Program (2011-2020)” issued by
China as a basic national policy for the implementation of equality between men
and women, ensuring women’s legitimate rights and interests, optimizing women’s
development environment, improving women’s social status, promoting women’s equality
in exercising democratic rights in accordance with the law, and participating
in the economic and social development, equal access to the guiding documents
of reform and development achievements, and making clear arrangements and
regulations on seven areas inclusive of health, education, economics,
decision-making and management, social security, environment, and law.

The 193
member states of the 2015 United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development
formally adopted 17 sustainable development goals, of which gender equality is
an important development goal. The other ten goals cover a wide range including
environmental protection, healthy lifestyles, quality education, poverty
eradication, hunger elimination, clean energy, etc. The fulfillment of these
development goals is inseparable from the broad and effective participation of
women. Existing research and practice have also proven that in the work of
reducing poverty or poverty alleviation, supporting women plays a key role in
the poverty alleviation of the entire family and the healthy growth of their
children.

Zigen
Has Always
Emphasized The Importance of Women’s Issues and Taking Actions to Promote Change

From the very beginning, Zigen encouraged women to learn mathematics and reading, and later set up women’s centers and sister groups in the Miao villages to hold public activities, increase women’s participation in village affairs, and increase economic income and enhance mutual support. In recent years, Zigen has supported women’s reproductive health training, women’s economic cooperation groups, elderly weaving teams, and women’s participation in agroforestry ecological planting projects, always emphasizing the importance of support for women. With the belief that supporting girls and women in education is the most effective investment, it has extremely direct and far-reaching significance for reducing women’s trafficking, reducing the number of children born, children’s health, increasing women’s income and promoting gender equality.

The purpose of the healthcare lectures/training for rural
women is to strengthen women’s health and self-care awareness, reduce
gynecological diseases, improve women’s health, develop good personal hygiene
habits, and let women educate their children to avoid early marriage and early
pregnancy.

In Leishan, we specifically invited Yu Yuefen, a retired doctor from the former Leishan County Maternal and Child Health Station, to share the knowledge about women’s physiology, hygiene and health with rural women through the analysis of women’s reproductive organs. She also taught many common tips for daily life. In Rongjiang, after investigation, we found Dr. Long, a doctor from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, People’s Hospital of Qijiang County. It is worth mentioning that Dr. Long is also a resident of Gaopa Village, and she has received funding from Zigen from primary school to university. She is one of the few college students who knows both Gaopa dialect and Miao dialect and women’s healthcare. She is very willing to join the seminar and share knowledge of women’s healthcare with women in Gaopa Village.

河北青龙大森店妇女培训学校，学习果树管理Learning management of fruit trees, women’s training school at Dasendian in Qinglong, Hebei

“In October 2003, Zigen supported the establishment of a women’s center in Maoping Village, Fangxiang county, Leishan, Guizhou. Women from the villages supervised the activities and development of the Women’s Center on their own, providing a better learning environment for women and residents in Maoping Village. After the establishment of the learning and communication environment, with the help of Ms. Li Bi Lin (Bik-Lam Lee) and other volunteers, the Maoping Women’s Hand Embroidery Project was started. Half of the income was distributed to women and half remained in the center to support women in public activities. Through this way, local women not only solved the difficulties in life but also rediscovered their self-confidence and values. In the past, women did not have right to speak out in the village and family. Now, because compulsory education has greatly promoted equality between men and women, women can participate equally in the rural public affairs, and also have an equal status in the family.” (Zigen 20th Anniversary Special Issue, 2009)

The Elderly Weaving Team Explores the Power of Left-Behind Women and The Elderly

“The elderly in Nanmeng Village are worried that no one
will know how to weave crafts in the future. They therefore have brought up the
need to restore the traditional skills of weaving. Under the funding of the
China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, Zigen has encouraged the rural
left-behind women to establish the Nanmeng Village Women’s Weaving Group. Now
there are 21 members in this group.

南猛村留守妇女织布小组开始启动，大家一起讨论并实施计划

An old lady said, “Before
weaving team was established, everyone only knew that they were really busy but
didn’t have any hobbies. Now through one year of weaving, everyone can learn
weaving together, sing Miao songs, tell stories, tell jokes, etc. We gather
once a month in a woman’s house to eat, sing and dance. You bring some rice
wine and I bring some rice and she brings some vegetables. Women are busy with
farm work during the day, and they spend the evening to weave. Everyone is very
happy. They not only find the joy of their lives, but also reduce the fatigue
of doing farm work.”

Ms. Yang, who came to Nanmeng Village via marriage, was originally born in a Han group. She was not that interested in Miao culture at first. Now she was influenced by the Zigen Weaving Group. She learned to weave from the elderly and learned embroidery from young women. Now she not only knows weaving and embroidery but also can speak Miao dialect fluently. She also researched and innovated on weaving and proposed to use different colors of cotton to match. Not only do the crafts have a good appearance, but they are very competitive in the market. (Zhang Yunfei, 2017)

These projects have achieved some tangible results, increased
women’s economic income, improved family relationships, established women’s
self-confidence, expanded women’s public space in the village, and enhanced
women’s interior support. However, there are also various problems such as
women’s lack of self-confidence, being too dependent on men in decision-making
and not enough participation by women in village’s public affairs. Zigen will
always stand with women, give attention to encouraging women to participate in
economic development, rural education, environmental protection and inheritance
of local culture, and will promote the sustainable development of people, the
countryside and agriculture with women as the basis.

Translated by Jocelyn Yu, comes from
Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Currently work in technology corporation in Shanghai. In her
leisure time, she prefers to explore the city by bike. She also likes to make
new friends all over the world.

Edited by Solo Tung, a professional Chinese-English translator and
proofreader.

May 1, 2019

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